Back from the Dead: Movie Classics that Began as Box-Office Bombs

By Kristin Elliot

SHARE:

If there is one thing Hollywood likes, it's a comeback story, and no one seems more poised for that right now than writer-director Troy Duffy. More than a decade ago, he was set to be Hollywood's next "It Boy" with his script for The Boondock Saints. Yet, instead of being sainted at the box office, Duffy wound up angering the Weinsteins (in all fairness, not a hard thing to do) and was demonized in the 2004 documentary Overnight.

Duffy's movie also suffered from unfortunate timing. On the heels of the 1999 Columbine massacre, distributors balked at the movie's excessive violence — not to mention the all-too-similar clothing choices the McManus brothers shared with the Columbine shooters. The movie opened in a paltry five theaters on January 21, 2000.

Politics may have sunk the movie initially, but word of mouth and DVD sales proved co-star Billy Connolly right when he said, "The kids will find it! It's rock 'n' roll!" Now the saints have been resurrected in a sequel, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. In honor of this achievement, here are 6 movies so popular now you might be surprised to hear they were considered box-office bombs.

Mike Judge was nearly run out of town when this spot-on depiction of cubicle life failed to find an audience at the Cineplex. Fortunately, repeated airings on Comedy Central brought this now-classic to everyone's attention. Um, yeaaaaaah.

After spawning two huge sequels, it's hard to remember the initial offering was a box-office disappointment. Only after the movie sold well on DVD did studio execs realize they had missed an opportunity by not promoting the movie better. Did they learn their lesson? Yeah, baby!!

Ridley Scott's bleak vision of the future was a bit too far ahead of its time when it hit theaters. Thanks to the 1992 "Director's Cut" release, audiences finally caught on to his vision of a human/android future.

Long before District 9, South Africa produced this small gem of a movie that follows a Kalahari Bushman as he attempts to return a "gift from the gods," aka a Coke bottle. This movie didn't debut in the US until 1984 (four years after it was made), but became so popular that it ran in some theaters for nearly two years. It even spawned a sequel, which sadly wasn't able to recapture the original charm and surprise.

Considered a bit too "out there" for the 1950s crowd, this Disney classic didn't find an audience until the '60s. (Maybe because people began to enjoy it in the same state Lewis Carroll was in when he wrote the original Alice stories?) In 1974, it was re-released in theaters. Something tells us Tim Burton's upcoming version won't have to wait 10 years to become a hit, though.

Yeah. Really. Thanks to several director and cast changes — and an extremely large production budget — this movie wasn't a financial success until 10 years after its release. It certainly didn't help that 1939 also saw the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and "the most profitable movie ever made," Gone With the Wind.